~ Auto Buzz ~: Junkyard Find: 1953 Plymouth Sedan

Monday, 16 February 2015

Junkyard Find: 1953 Plymouth Sedan

07 - 1953 Plymouth Sedan Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin When I visited Southern California back in December, I hit the jackpot with interesting junkyard cars to photograph. In addition to stuff I haven’t shared yet, there was this fully-loaded ’82 Subaru BRAT, John DeLorean’s weird rope-drive Tempest with 540-lb four-banger, this rust-free ’84 Cressida, and this ’51 Plymouth Cranbrook. The self-service yard that had the ’51 Plymouth also had today’s Junkyard Find, which tells you a lot about how spoiled Los Angeles car freaks are.

06 - 1953 Plymouth Sedan Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin I can’t tell if this is a Cranbrook or Cambridge or whatever, because all the trim-level-specific emblems are long gone.

09 - 1953 Plymouth Sedan Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Still, it’s not rusty and it’s pretty much complete. Much as we talk about wanting to save all the old cars, there’s just not much value in a battered-yet-restorable ordinary bread-and-butter four-door of this era.

04 - 1953 Plymouth Sedan Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Chrysler made their flathead six-cylinder engine for nearly a half-century (if you count engines made for military vehicles and stationary industrial applications), making it one of the all-time engine legends. If this is the engine that came with this car from the factory (unlikely, but possible), it’s the 217-cubic-inch version.

13 - 1953 Plymouth Sedan Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin According to the laws that established the CONELRAD system, all AM radios manufactured between 1953 and 1963 were supposed to have the “duck and cover” frequencies of 640 and 1240 kHz marked on their dials. Either Chrysler didn’t get the word, this radio was manufactured in 1952, or it was swapped in later.